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Sunday, February 17, 2013

To the Mana Born: The Commodity

To the Mana Born: The
Commodity

By Christopher Leeson

Revised 12-16-14

Author's note: This
story takes place in the same universe as my earlier tale, The Dark
of the Moon. The mystic forces that were at work behind the scenes in
that story were kept veiled from the reader. In this entry, much of
what must happened to Darrell and Loren can be placed in context. But
this is not a new Darrell and Loren story; it explores the universe
from the perspective of other characters. Many TG stories before this
have featured wicked stepmothers, but few of them have focused
specifically upon the stepmother character, exploring her dilemma and
explaining why she does what she does. But though Elisa Ardens is
not necessarily typical of every wicked stepmother, we hope that her
story is a good one, and that it shall both interest and entertain.

* * * *

Chapter 1

Mrs. George Ardens was speaking to
the intercom: "Okay, good, Polly. Try to get the email out
before you go home." She glanced back at her computer screen.
The next appointment up was Jethra Courtindale's, from Wizards Law
Office. "Send in my two o'clock now."

'What a
strange name for a firm,' Elisa thought. 'Some ex-Dungeons and
Dragons kids must have gone to law school." She shook her head.
It took all kinds.

She hoped that the subject of the visit
wouldn't be about her stepson Langdon. There had been threats that
some angry parents would go after her for alleged parental neglect.

Elisa hadn't been willfully neglectful, but too late she had
awaken one morning realizing that she had lost control. Damage to
public property, damage to private property, petty theft, rumbles --
Elisa didn't even know if gang fights were still called "rumbles"
-- assault and battery, misbehavior with girls, shaking down kids,
and, worst of all, Langdon had been charged with trafficking hashish
oil, enough of the illegal drug earn a sentence of up to twenty years
and a fine of $250,000. Worse, it had happened over the river in
Iowa, where Langdon was a legal adult.

The sound of the
turning knob made Elisa turn. Jethra Courtindale was wearing a dress
suit that looked expensive, but it came off as being somehow
eccentric. The businesswoman also noted that the woman had a mouth
and big, light blue-gray eyes that reminded her of Angelina Jolie.

Her diction had an undertone of
foreignness. Not Latino, not British, not Scandinavian. East
European, maybe. Elisa got down to business. "I read your email.
It was very brief. May I assume that your visit concerns real
estate?"

The lawyer smiled. "It involves a far more
valuable commodity than real estate."

Elisa
regarded the stranger closely. "Do they also respect the spirit
of the law?"

Jethra smiled again. "Whenever
possible. Their business sometimes operates in realms where the laws
of man simply do not extend."

Once again Elisa suspected
that she was dealing with a Dungeons and Dragons player. "Please
come to the point, Miss Courtindale. I have much else to attend
to."

The lawyer nodded. "This is the point. Your
stepson is failing in school and, after years of minor offenses, he
appears to be on the fast track to adult prison. Much worse, we
foresee that he will die of a knife wound while incarcerated."

"A
knife wound? Who's threatening his life?"

"No one;
not at the moment."

Elisa bridled. "Of what concern
of yours is my stepson?"

"To our firm, none at all.
But he is of concern to the people whom Wizards represent."

"Is
this another lawsuit threat? And what do you mean by 'foresee'?"

"It
is not a lawsuit; it is a prognostication. Our clients are mindful of
the portents."

"Your clients consult --
astrology?"

Courtindale took the question with apparent
amusement. "That is an inaccurate term used in popular culture
for what is actually an intricate science."

"If you
say so. Who are these clients of yours?"

"They are
the local chapter of a concern called the Starry Order."

Elisa
frowned at the unfamiliar name. "And this order is what? It
sounds like a mystical lodge, or a New Age publishing
house."

"Neither. They serve a specialty customer
base."

"What is their business?" Mrs. Ardens
asked pointedly.

"Sorcery."

Elisa looked
askance. "This has to be a practical joke, Miss Courtindale. Is
there a candid camera hidden in your attache case? Or is this
interview leading to something even more absurd?"

"I
will be frank, Madame. As I have stated, my clients deal in magic.
Wizards Law works solely with clients who seek to attain their
business objectives through supernatural practices. We manage
necessary negotiations and see to it that they keep within the strict
laws of magic. We also take care that local jurisdictions are not
offended."

"The laws of magic?"

"My
firm represents wizards belonging to -- let us call it an 'ethnic
group' -- that refers to itself as the People. Magic has its own code
of ethics, set down many centuries ago by our ancestors. Sorcery is
complex and its practice generate a great deal of work for legal
consultants."

Elisa rolled her eyes. "There is no
such thing as sorcery, so please…"

"It is natural
that you should think so," Courtindale interrupted. "Formerly,
as everyone knows, sorcery was widely recognized as being real and
its was strictly against the law. Since then, wizards have learned
how to conceal what they do from people – muggles is what people
without magic are called in the current parlance. Without objective
proof of the operation of magic in the world, ordinary people stopped
believing in it. The prohibitions that were preserved in their law
books gradually became dead letters."

"You're
claiming to be a -- a witch, too?"

She glanced down as a
show of modesty. "I'm a very minor practitioner. The issues of
magical law are rather more congenial to my talents."

Elisa
shook her head. "Please. Whether you are playing a role for a
reality TV show, or are not in your right mind, I would appreciate it
if you would state your business plainly, so we can end this
conversation."

Courtindale did not seem at all perturbed
by such bluntness. "I would be glad to, Mrs. Ardens. Case in
point. Did you see that film with James Stewart -- Bell, Book, and
Candle?"

As a matter of fact, Elisa had seen it. She had
been deeply affected by the ending, when Kim Novak in the arms of
Jimmy Stewart tearfully says, "I don't think I can. I'm only
human."

"I've seen it. You don't believe that all
that stuff about witches is true, do you?"

The lawyer
shrugged slightly. "The movie decently presents the general idea
of the existence of the People, but the details are all wrong.
Witches are not the ne'er-do-wells of the sort that are depicted in
the movie. You would be surprised at how many societal leaders in
this day and age are actually witches. It takes magic to get ahead
in the world; it always has."

Elisa stood up. "Please,
Miss, this has so far been a pointless interview. I only want to know
why you seem so interested in my stepson."

Jethra
Courtindale sighed. "You must first concede that magic is real,
otherwise nothing I say can possibly lead to a productive discussion.
A free demonstration of sorcery is usually the deal-maker. If you are
willing, I shall provide you with ample proof that magic does indeed
exist."

The hair on the back of Elisa's neck prickled
with unease. "I'd rather…"

The lawyer raised her
hand. A tingle ran through the realtor's body. "I must request
that you sit quietly and do not speak until bidden."

Elisa
wanted to exclaim, "How dare you!" but to her shock, she
couldn't utter a word, nor keep herself from sitting down. Though the
businesswoman struggled against the compulsion, she could barely even
wriggle.

"Don't be concerned with your paralysis, Mrs.
Ardens. This is only a demonstration."

Elisa's expression
had already changed from one of bafflement to one of
fear.

Courtindale spoke concernedly. "Please be calm --
if you wish to, of course. It will make you a better
listener."

Elisa's feeling of being trapped at once
disappeared and she could regard the lawyer objectively.

"Your
boy is the major problem of your life," Jethra continued. "It's
bad enough that he's facing juvenile justice in Nebraska, but we're
aware that he's up for drug charges in Iowa, too. It will only go
from bad to worse. A charge of date rape will soon be filed,
also."

Elisa wanted to demand how she knew that, but
couldn't make reply.

"People have different destinies,"
said Courtindale. "The trend of an individual's destiny can be
read beforehand, but the soul walks along an aisle with many doors.
Prognostication is the process of probabilities. A few doors lead to
happiness, many to mediocrity, and a few to utter catastrophe. It
takes wisdom and a moral compass to find the best way through, but
Landon is not well endowed with either wisdom nor morality.

"Sometimes magical aid can save a person from his own
folly. In this case, your best hope is, indeed. magic, unless you
don't care that he will soon die violently, and probably do so in
prison."

Elisa already knew that Langdon was a kid on the
wrong road, but she couldn't believe that he was so far gone. He
hadn't killed anyone, at least not yet.

Miss Courtindale
continued. "Your own destiny, by the way, is to suffer ruinous
civil lawsuits stemming from the fact that the law makes parents and
guardians responsible for damage inflicted by a minor."

Elisa
again tried to reply, but couldn't.

"Excuse me. You may
now converse normally," declared Courtindale.

"W-What
do you want?" Elisa stammered. The sudden return of her power of
speech startled her. If there was such a thing as a witch, this woman
was one.

"Your name has come up as a good potential
negotiating partner," Courtindale said. "We almost never
deal with happy families. We are looking for families in breakup,
distressed parents, and especially stepparents and guardians who have
feel driven to the wall."

"What do you want with
me?" Elisa asked.

"My clients are offering to buy
Langdon's mana."

Elisa looked confused. "What's
that? It sounds like that food they mention in

the Bible?"

"The
substance you're thinking of is spelled M-A-N-N-A. Mana, M-A-N-A, is
a type of supernatural energy."Mana is a term that comes
from the Pacific islanders, but the concept goes back beyond the
beginning of preserved history. It has commonly been interpreted as
"the stuff from which magic is formed." The word is
amusingly ironic in English. There are different types of mana, but
the one we are interested in constitutes the essence that makes a
male out of the generic human clay. The basic human is female, of
course; a male is only a female who has been born with a prenatal
connection to the free flow of mana."

"It sounds
like some foreign religious idea. You say it's Hawaiian?"

"The
word spans many cultures, but the concept encompasses the universe.
In a world of muggles, the concept of mana actually bridges both
science and religion." Courtindale folded her arms and rested
back. "Scientists usually don't believe in deities, but their
theories of quantum physics is actually the proof divine creation."

Elisa looked puzzled. Divine creation? She was very afraid
this was more than she was up to dealing with.

Chapter Two

"My clients are among the
leading brokers of mana," said Courtindale. "They seek the
sexual-type mana, which is the easiest to acquire without the loss of
life. You see, most of the other types of mana are more basic to
preserving reality and harvesting them would lead to death or even
non-existence.

"Just as a wool merchant buys wool from a
farmer's sheep, my clients buy mana. Mana ebbs naturally with age and
beyond the age of thirty, it has so dwindled that is not worth
harvesting at all. We can and often do buy mana from younger males.
Unfortunately, youths in the flush of their masculine virility are
the least willing to sell it.

"Our law does not allow us
to acquire mana from anyone under eighteen, not even if they were
willing and had the consent of their parents. In most places, a boy
of eighteen is a legal adult and so we can and do deal directly with
him, but our success rates are low. Fortunately, in Nebraska a boy of
eighteen is still a minor. That means that, as his legal guardian,
you may ethically contract for the sale your ward's mana. If do you,
we can arrange to take Langdon off his path of self-destruction, and
also to protect the security of your finances."

The
attorney looked deeply into Elisa's amazed eyes. "But I suppose
that you are still refusing to believe anything that I'm
saying."

The realtor blinked. Was this strange woman
actually telling her that she could sell Langdon for profit?

"You
said that taking mana kills. That's murder."

Courtindale
shook her head. "The loss of sexual mana does not kill, nor does
it even endanger the health. We harvest mana safely all the time. The
logging company is not in business to kill trees; the lumberman
replants his crop scrupulously. When we take mana, we commit
ourselves to looking after the welfare of the young person who yields
it. No doubt, that is where those stories about fairy godparents
first began."

"You mean, like in Cinderella?"

"Yes,
exactly. If she was a historical character, as many of the People
suspect, Cinderella must have been a mana donor."

"Magic
is real? Fairytales are real? Is that what you're saying?" Elisa
muttered.

Courtindale smiled charmingly. "If you enter
into agreement with the Starry Order, Mrs. Ardens, your guardianship
endures. The after-sale department of the Order will be ever on call
to help you assist you through the crises of parenting. If necessary,
they will even protect him from you, if you fail to do you proper
duty. Supernatural protection from a bad stepmother was really what
the story of Cinderella was all about."

Elisa's doubt
became incredulity. Were these people calling her a bad stepmother?
Were they trying to usurp her guardianship of her stepson?

"Now,
Mrs. Ardens, do you have any questions?"

"This all
sounds insane," Elisa said.

"Do you still
disbelieve? The fact is, the universe couldn't operate without what
we call magic. Magic is simply the intelligent use of the ancient
creation energy that makes life and physical reality possible."

"You
can do things, I admit, but you may have me hypnotized or
something."

"I can hypnotize you, and do it very
well. But I haven't."

"How does it hurt a person to
lose this…mana stuff?"

"What happens is
remarkable. Without the energy that keeps a male in his
reproductively-viable form, he will revert to the low-energy state of
a human being."

"Is that dangerous?"

"Not
at all. The default energy state for a human being is
female."

"Female? In what sense?"

"In
every sense. A gynecologist would find nothing amiss in a boy's
physiology after the loss of his mana."

Elisa let that
soak in, then she scowled. "You have to be crazy. Nobody can
change a person that way!"

"We do not actually
profit by such a radical alteration. Sex change is simply an
unavoidable byproduct of the process. It happens because to take the
linchpin out of the subject's reality, so we deal with it."

"I
must be dreaming…." Elisa murmured.

"You will not
be forced to contract with us, but we can make it well worth your
while, should you choose to do so."

"I have to ask
you to leave, Miss Courtindale."

"I have convinced
many skeptics before this, Mrs. Ardens. Let me demonstrate a magical
transformation. Suggest something. For example, would you like to
have a functioning third eye in the middle of your
forehead?"

"N-No!" Elisa declared.

The
lawyer regarded an object upon the desk. "I might turn this
paperweight into gold, but without expert opinion, could you tell
true gold from an imitation?"

"I suppose
not."

"Would you like to experience being an animal
of some variety? I do a very nice golden retriever."

"No,
thank you!" She felt like she had fallen down the rabbit hole
into Wonderland.

"Or would you like to be -- a woman who
is younger and much more beautiful than you are?"

Elisa
looked fixedly at Jethra. "Is -- Is that why you have movie-star
good looks yourself?"

Courtindale nodded. "This is
not the shape I was born with. I am over three hundred years old. I
have benefited from a simple physical-change spell, and it takes but
little mana to bring it about. In fact, I have worn several shapes
over time. Tastes in beauty evolve with the epoch. Instead of merely
changing our clothes, we change appearances. In Rubens day, a
decidedly plump woman was considered to be the epitome of sex appeal.
Now many women will go bulimic in order to achieve a shape like my
present one."

Elisa regarded the lawyer warily. "All
right, then, prove what you say by making me a... a beautiful and
youthful woman. Something like that would convince any reasonable
person."

Jethra raised a finger. "There are many
kinds of beauty, Elisa. Always take care when seeking for advantage
through magic."

"What is the risk?"

"Minor,
if it is left to the experts. The old warning holds: 'Do not try this
at home.' Magic is power and power corrupts. The will to abuse it
ultimately depends on the sort of person one is. The children of the
People are trained in the ethical use of it very early. The training
process is very like what is shown in the Harry Potter movies."

"I
tend to be very cautious about unfamiliar things," Elisa
said.

"Caution has its value, but we take risks every
time we step into a car or bus. If you prefer to risk nothing, I will
walk out of this room and you will never need to hear of the Starry
Order again."

Elisa thought about that. "You've
gotten me very curious. How long would a demonstration take?"

"Less
than a minute."

"Then I would want lustrous blonde
hair, and to be only twenty years old. A face like a magazine model.
Slim, with perfect skin."

The attorney nodded and said,
"You can now move, Elisa. Go look into the mirror."

Suddenly
the businesswoman found that she could push herself out of her chair.
She held up her hands and saw that they had become smaller and
smoother. Had the promised change already occurred? She had felt
nothing.

There was a decorative mirror on the wall and she
stepped unsteadily toward it. A shiver ran down her spine. Her
reflected face looked like a college girl's. Her gray-green irises
had turned azure. Her graying, unruly hair had become a flow of pale,
golden silk.

"You must be using hypnotism," the
realtor muttered.

Jethra was on her feet and arranging her
attaché case. "You decide. I've placed a stock enchantment on
you. Every stranger in the world will see you as you are now,
because your present appearance is the physical reality.

"To
avoid complications, though, your secretary and any other person who
truly knows you, such as Langdon, will see the illusion of your
natural shape. Go out on the town, have a good time. I shall come
back to finish this negotiation. How long would you wish to carry on
with this experiment?"

Elisa's mind was in a whirl. "I-I
don't know."

The other woman smiled. "Then until
Friday. I shall return at that time and, with your permission, we
shall continue our discussion."

Elisa felt dazed. "What
exactly are you offering me, if I let Langdon become a
girl?"

"Whatever you desire, within reason. To be
empress of the world? I don't think so. The point is to disrupt the
lives of innocent people as little as possible. Money is no object.
Might you enjoy claiming a prestigious linage that would put you at
the head of any social set? Electronic documents that would confirm
your new appearance and life history are easy to alter. You would
need a new identity, of course."

"You're saying I
could stay this way?"

"You could, if we come to
terms."

"If I dealt with you, would -- would Langdon
look like a real girl?"

"Yes, but because he is not
an attractive boy, he would not make an attractive female.
Fortunately, as you know, magic can make a plain person beautiful. We
prefer to make a transformed boy beautiful merely for his own
emotional health. What person could hate the shape he possesses if it
invokes his vanity? Beauty leads to popularity. Most people see
popularity as something positive."

Courtindale had placed
a hand on the doorknob. "Think about what would make your life
happy, Mrs. Ardens, as well as what you want for Langdon."

Elisa
didn't know what to say.

Jethra Courtindale never opened the
door. She simply faded away like a movie witch.

* * *
*

Though the sorceress was gone, truly, the mirror told Elisa
that she still remained young and beautiful. But the thought
flickered through her mind that she had become a stranger to herself.
She was frightened at the thought of being seen by acquaintances and
going unrecognized.

Elisa needed some sort of proof that she
wasn't mesmerized or dreaming. 'People can fly in their dreams,' she
thought. 'I'll try to fly.'

She could not fly.

'Well,
that's something…' she whispered.

What would happen if Polly
saw her?

She walked stiffly into the reception area. Polly
was at her desk and there was her next appointment waiting in one of
the

chairs.

The receptionist
glanced up, but did not change her expression.

No reaction?
Elisa wondered if her appearance was only imaginary. Still,
Courtindale had warned that those who already knew her wouldn't be
able to see any change.

Then Elisa shifted toward the client,
a man whom she had never met before. He was staring at her.

"M-Mr.
Dunware?" she stammered.

"Ah, yes! Miss Ardens…"
he began.

"Mrs. Ardens," she corrected him, her
smile tense. "I'm a widow. You are here representing the
Saunders firm in regard to that industrial lot in Hayrack?"

"Yes,"
he affirmed absently. "But call me Harold. No one told me that
our realtor was so young and attractive."

Elisa heard
Polly grunt, "Hmmm."

The transformed woman was taken
aback. The idea of looking different to two different people in the
same room was very disorienting. She wanted to be alone with her
client.

"I think we should discuss our business over
lunch. I'm famished," remarked Elisa.

Elisa
looked back at Polly. "I'll before my four o'clock
appointment."

Dunware was holding the door open.

'Being
treated like a beautiful girl isn't thumbscrews,' Elisa was thinking.
'Even Langdon could learn to like it.'

Chapter Three

Elisa hadn't hadn't been in the
company of an admiring and attentive man for a long while, and found
herself wanting many more repeat experiences. Elisa realized that she
had less than three days to enjoy the body that a strange destiny had
granted her. After that she would turn back into a peasant -- unless
she cut a deal with Miss Courtindale. But what she was asking for
amounted to human sacrifice.

She had once loved Langdon. When his
father was still alive, the boy had been bringing home glowing
teachers' reports. He also seemed to be missing a mother's attention
and had welcomed her into their home in a friendly way. That had
changed suddenly when his father died. He didn't seem to understand
that when bad things happen one just had to be strong and go on.
Instead, he had gotten touchy and seemed to hate almost everybody.
Since the age of thirteen he had learned little in school, except
about attention-getting misbehavior.

She wanted to put her
stepson on a better course, but she had been able to do nothing with
him. She could almost believe that changing him for the better would
require magic. But Elisa's instincts told her that dealing with the
shadowy People could end well for anyone involved.

After a
friendly goodbye with her escort, Elisa had returned to the office.
Her present situation was too good to waste, and so she took her four
o'clock and then told Polly to reschedule all her appointments that
were for Wednesday and Thursday. She would be busy until Friday
afternoon, she said, but would be able to come in and catch up with
work on Saturday. Elisa offered to give Polly either Wednesday or
Thursday off if she'd come in Saturday and the young woman had
agreed.

When her secretary left, the realtor did called
around for a salon appointment. She wanted a beautician to see her
new appearance, and so needed a place where she wasn't known. Elisa
found an open slot in a place that stayed open to seven and catered
to downtown businesswomen.

Before her appointment, she hurried
to a boutique to buy something youthful and trendy. Once she had
arrived at the salon, she told the cosmologist that she was going to
a party hosted by wealthy investors and wanted an appropriate
look.

She had barely gotten back to the office before Mr.
Dunware arrived to escort her to a real party. Some of the men there
were very attractive and the sprite blonde on Mr. Dunware's arm
didn't have any trouble detaching herself and attracting other
attention. After about a half hour she noticed that Mr. Dunware was
nowhere to be seen. That made her feel sorry, but not for long.

Elisa was wined, dined, and able to dance with her choice of
spontaneous admirers. If the realtor could only hold on to these
incredible new looks, she anticipated the possibility of an excellent
new marriage into the wealthy set of Omaha's elite.

'Comfort,
prestige, and millions of dollars, too,' she was thinking. But the
glowering cloud on the horizon was the certain knowledge keeping
these things would have to come at Langdon's expense. Still, each
time she looked into the mirror behind the bar, the wicked
stepmother, like a serpent at her breast, whispered, 'It isn't so bad
being an attractive girl. Anyone could learn to like it, even
Langdon."

But doubt continued to accuse her. Can any
course so overtly self-seeking lead to happiness? How well could she
trust the People? Could holders of such superhuman powers be trusted
to do what they promised, and do it in an honorable spirit? What
could she do if they decided to discard her as a pawn no longer
needed?

All through the next day Elisa's depression alternated
with elation. Impulsively, calling her new identity "Daphne,"
the businesswoman went to a "glamour" photography studio of
the sort that staged “special" pictures for women to give to
their lovers and husbands. She paid $200 for a shoot that featuring
her wearing her new club dress. Then, falling more into the spirit of
the fantasy, she put on items of lingerie that the photographer had
on his rack. Some of the shots were out-and-out cheesecake. 'I could
have been a Playboy centerfold looking like this,' she
realized.

During her hour in the studio, Elisa was able to
play at being a sort of girl that she never had been, the type who
always seemed to get all the attention and have all the fun. Her set
of photos would be the proof of this experience that she would
treasure afterwards, so that she would know whether or not these
incredible three days had actually happened.

But she was
living on an emotional roller coaster. Elation always gave way to
trepidation. Elisa was being asked to sign a contract and the idea
reminded her of the story of Faust. What if these people had not only
inspired the stories of fairy godparents, but also people's memories
of a tempting Satan? What if they were demonic beings pretending to
be mere wizards? Were they not after this mana thing after all, but
souls?

At home on Wednesday evening, Elisa checked her
answering machine. There was a call from her lawyer. It shocked her
to learn that the family of the girl that Langdon had got mixed up
with were trying to get him arrested if she didn't pay them off.
Courtindale had predicted that this would happen. How much more of
what she said would turn out to be true, such as Langdon's
imprisonment and murder?

Fortunately, when she called the
attorney, Mr. Owlsley, the next morning, he told her that he could
give her an excellent defense. The litigants had waited too long to
throw this new stink bomb and he didn't think that an impartial court
would let them get very far with it.

The more Elisa thought
about this new problem, the more depressed and incensed she became.
Why did this have to happen now? She could have been enjoying these
last two days to the fullest, but the news had ruined her mood. Would
the torture of being a failed parent ever stop?

Langdon was
foolish and reckless, but in her heart she didn't think that he
deserved prison -- not yet, not in this world where judges let drug
cartels and serial killers walk. But he surely didn't deserve to get
off scot-free, either. She suspected that his grief and anger, once
real, had become a cold, hard, cynical excuse for getting away with
being bad. In her sympathy, she had for too long allowed him to get
away with it. But against the boy's stubborn defiance, his six-foot height
and great strength, what could she do?

Elisa didn't think that she liked the answer.

* * * *

Friday afternoon, Miss Courtindale sat
quietly while Elisa paced and talked, not always coherently. Every
glance into the mirror told her how awful was her present reality,
now that her days as Daphne were over.

"I understand,'
said the lawyer. "But everything that you say tells me that a
big change would be for the boy's own good."

"Don't
patronize me!" Elisa snapped. "The fact is, I'm weak!
You've offered me temptation that is just too great for me. I don't
just want a new look. I want a new life. I want to throw my old
problems out of my life like rubbish. I've been bought and Langdon's
is sold. If I deal with you, I deserve your contempt. Say
it!"

Courtindale shrugged.

The realtor clenched
her hands into fists. How could the woman be so nonchalant while she
was such a mass of emotion? "If all we have left to do is haggle
over the terms," she suddenly said, "I want to know what
the payment will be. Start with the money."

Courtindale
regarded the skyline out the window thoughtfully. "We could
afford billions, but could you afford it? One loses the value of
money if he has too much of it.”

“What do you all too much?”

“I've never met anyone whose life was
ruined by, say, ten million dollars."

Elisa didn't seem
impressed. "That doesn't sound like so much, not in this day of
the Warren Buffets. But…." She threw up her hands. "If
that's the limit, I would insist that none it should be wasted on
taxes. I want ten million, free and clear."

"No
problem. We can even give you a paper trail to justify your immunity
to taxation. It's done all the time. Would you like to be part of
the Old Money class? A trust-fund baby? Once it was only the peasants
who were taxed. Nothing has really changed since then. Only now
it's the working class that keeps the party going."

"There
won't be anything suspicious that governments could pick up
on?"

"The electronic data systems of today have made
even the most outrageous financial fictions very easy to prove.
Again, it's done all the time."

Elisa's mouth felt dry.
She went to the coffee pot and took what was left. Then, cup in hand,
she said, "Now, let's talk about Langdon. He's going to go out
of his mind when he sees how he's changed."

"True,
almost all the new girls undergo shock," Courtindale said. "We
have ways to help minimize the shock. Do you have any ideas, Mrs.
Ardens?”

"I want the punishment to fit the
crime."

Courtindale shook her head. "The Starry
Order is not in the business of punishment. The consequences of mana
loss bring a little inevitable suffering. But so much of the modern
world's problems come from the fact that social reformers have
forgotten that suffering builds character. A disproportionate number
of history's most successful men suffered the loss of their father in
youth. Removing one source of suffering only creates another kind,
like putting a jungle animal into a nice safe zoo. Tell me what sort
of life would be justified for Langdon and I will let you know
whether our code prohibits it."

Elisa took a deep breath.
"Langdon has been a bully. That has to stop. It has gotten him
into a lot of trouble and it's made most of the kids hate him. As a
girl, I wouldn't want to see him carrying on that way, pushing around
smaller girls and little children."

Her mind was racing.
"He should be only about five-foot five, light of build, and
without much upper body strength. But he shouldn't be frail or
sickly. I want him to enjoy robust health all his life, freedom from
all genetic defects, and to be extremely resistant to disease. Think
of a cheerleader type, vigorous, active, but attractive." Her
own mother had been anemic from childhood, and her frequent illness
had robbed much joy from her family.

Courtindale didn't change
her expression.

"When I was Langdon's age, I wasn't
pretty and I hated it. I want Langdon to be as attractive and well-fashioned
as a girl can be."

The lawyer lifted her chin. "Any
specifics?"

"I don't know. I think that he'd be
happiest if he looked like the sorts of girls he admires
most."

"What sorts are that?"

"He
collects Playboy centerfolds. He used to hide them from my view; now
he puts them upon the wall of his room for all to see. I think that if
given a choice, he'd most want to look like that sort of
girl."

Jethra Courtindale seemed to consider the prospect.

"But
I don't want him to be classically perfect, not a goddess. I've read that the most
beautiful women complain that they frighten the decent men away and only egotistical rats have the gall to hit on them. Langdon should come off
as the girl-next-door type, obviously pretty but not intimidating. In
short, I want him to be the kind of girl that even the mild mannered boys can find enough nerve to ask out."
'Like I wasn't asked out,' she almost added.

Elisa shook her head. “I would have accepted the trade-off. The worst problem a girl can
have being ignored by boys."

Lawyer nodded congenially. "What do you want
for Langdon in the long term?"

"I want him to gain
in character, become wiser, and contribute positively to society."

"And what, in your
opinion, would serve to make him wiser?

"It's the Golden
Rule. I want him to learn to treat people the same way that he'd
like to be treated."

"I see. And what would you like
his sexual preference to be while he's learning this?"

She paused a moment before she answered, "I'd like him to be attracted to boys. Could you do
that?"

Courtindale's pursed her lips. "We have rules
against mind control. But sexual preference is usually an outcome of of
brain structure. The magic can alter boy's brain to match
that of a heterosexual girl. Also, girls are attracted
by male pheromones, and vice versa. We can take care that Langdon will be given the
physiological underpinning to be very stimulated just in being around boys."

"A
pheromone is a kind of a scent, isn't it?"

"Yes.
Between a altered brain structure and a pheromone susceptibility, some previously very hetero boys I've encountered have became mothers in less than a
year after their mana siphoning."

Up to now, Elisa hadn't
thought about Langdon getting pregnant. Would that sour him on being a girl? What, exactly, did she want for her
stepson?

"I wouldn't care for Langdon to be
starting a family before marriage," she said out loud.

The
lawyer was leaning forward, gathering her gloves from the desktop.
"It all comes down to free will. From the reports, Langdon is by nature oversexed.
If this quality not adjusted, that could potentially make him sexually
overactive as a girl. Too strong a sex drive can lead a young
woman into unnecessary difficulty. There are remedies, though.
We'll discuss the subject next time. She stood up. “Well,
I believe that we've carried this discussion far enough for one day.
Our clients will be happy to know that we have begun serious
negotiations."

"I've been wondering, where does the
mana go when it is taken?"

Courtindale paused only for a
moment. "It feeds into a mystic receiver for storage, a sort of
'mana battery" that we call a 'mana bank'. Almost every member
of the People has a mana account. We are not paid in money. We are
remunerated with mana."

"Fascinating, I suppose.
We'll speak again, won't we?"

"Definitely. But
you're emotions are running high just now. One can't always think
clearly if angry or excited."

"Have I suggested
anything that –- that goes too far?"

"Nothing that
I've heard. By the way, I understand that Langdon is still only a
junior, despite being eighteen."

The businesswoman
nodded. "Yes. Most schools won't place a child in first grade
unless he is at least six years old when school begins. Because
Langdon was born in mid-September, he's almost a year older than the
other juniors. Is that an issue?"

"No. I was just
thinking that it would be easier for him to adjust to his classmates
if he were physically of the same physical development."

Elisa
nodded. "Langdon did get big and strong early. He's always hated
looking older than the children in his classes. He's always thought
that it makes people think he's stupid and that he's been set back a
year. But being the biggest boy in his class has has helped him be a
bully, though."

"Some girls look younger than they
are; I suggest that for Langdon. He can physically bloom at the same
time that the other girls in his grade do."

"It
sounds like a plan," agreed Elisa.

The lawyer paused at the door. "Do
you have anything else to add before I leave, Mrs. Ardens?"

"More than anything, I just want him to be a good
learner and a smart student. I want him to be able to pick a job that
he likes and make a success of it."

Courtindale rubbed
her chin. "We can give him a efficient and high quality physical
brain, but exactly how a young person does in school comes down to a
matter of attitude and motivation."

"Langdon started
out as a high-achieving child."

"Maybe this
experience will bring back the person that he was meant to be,"
suggested the lawyer. "May we get together at two o'clock on
Monday?"

"I'll keep that hour open," Elisa
assured her.

Chapter Four

For the
next week, Elisa Ardens and Jethra Courtindale met frequently, going
over draft agreements, editing, deleting, and fleshing out the
salient points in detail. What they were doing was a standard
contract negotiation, lawyerly in the extreme. For the most part,
they were establishing formal language to convey the general ideas
that had been set own at the very beginning.

Today they were
meeting in Elisa's condo. The realtor's expression showed her
concern. "How can this be done without Langdon realizing the
part I've played in it? If he ends up hating me, what kind of a
parent can I be when he needs one the most?"

"We'll
address that question soon, but remember that this change will be
permanent. When Langdon realizes he has to be a girl for life, he
will either go into a long funk, have an emotional breakdown,
or…"

"Commit suicide?" Elisa put in
anxiously.

"I was going to say, he might actually feel
relieved."

"Relieved -- to be a girl? Langdon?"

She
nodded, as if remembering the lessons of a long life. "Many
boys are surprised when they find out that being a pretty girl can be
very pleasant. And if they've started to like boys as well, why
would they ever want to be male again? Unfortunately, male psychology
is programmed to reject the feminine in themselves even while admiring it in their lady friends. Many will not admit that
they are experiencing changing feelings about their situation, not even to themselves. Honestly admitting that their hearts are singing “I Enjoy Being a Girl,”
will be impossible for them. But if they realize that fate has stepped in and forced its own choice on them, boys are able to stop wrangling with their
inner demons, bear down, and face life anew."

"What
happens then?"

"Usually they go out and party. They'll be surprised at how much easier it is for a girl
to pick a boy up if she's pretty. Boys are used to having a hard time getting the opposite sex to show any interest in them. That's because of the differences in temperament between the sexes, and in the
way that they are brought up.

"The danger is that a new girl can fall
back on old habits approach sex the same way that a boy
does. But sex can't be so casual for a girl. It can get her trapped
into pregnancy and change all her plans and expectations. These days there's abortion, of course, but Planned
Parenthood never talks about the emotional scarring that such a
violation can bring to a young woman. If you would prefer, there is always the option to
have Langdon become an infertile girl."

Elisa looked surprised and replied slowly.
"I was told that I couldn't have children. I felt
it as a hurt that wouldn't go away. I was lucky, though, because by the time that I
discovered that...that I wasn't a complete woman...I already had a
stepson. I don't want to rob Langdon of any of his possibilities for
a full and beautiful life.”

"Has your experience with parenthood been beautiful?"

"No," replied Elisa, "but I needed the chance to at least try to make something good of the experience."

The lawyer nooded. "Most of the decent parents we
deal with feel the same way.”

Suddenly
Elisa frowned. "I was wondering. You changed my shape, but
then turned me back. Could the People turn a boy back if they wanted
to?"

Courtindale shook her head. "The great wizards
are well able to make a boy out of a girl, but in practice it's
almost never done. A boy has all the generic information needed to
make a girl. A girl does not.

"She lacks the basic building blocks
that goes into making a boy. A boy who turns female is a plus for us; it fills our banks with mana
because that extra mystical energy inherent in boyhood flows to us. A girl has no such essence to give. She can be changed into a boy only if stored mana is used
to effect the transformation. The People have little motivation to
spend so much mana just to gain one more boy for the world. If a boy is transformed, we try to the new girl learn to enjoy being a girl so much
that she wouldn't want to change back even if she had the chance.”

"But is it even possible? Like,
if you were paid enough?”

“Money doesn't interest to persons who can
turn lead into gold. But sometimes a trade can be arranged. The
trouble is, I seriously doubt that either you or Langdon would have
anything to offer the People in that regard."

"What
would the wizards want?"

"You wouldn't have a spare
Spear of Longinus in your broom closet, would you?"

"Yes. After the signing, you can cancel at
any time -- at any time prior to the mana donation, I mean."

"Why
don't your wizards take mana from boys who want to be girls? There's
lots of transvestites on those trashy reality shows. According to the
news, they're in our schools and sometimes they're actually allowed to use the girls'
rest rooms. They can't be hard to locate."

Jethra
sighed. "If only it were so easy. Transsexualism is almost
always a symptom of mana deficiency. Most boys who want to be girls start out with as
little mana in their auras as middle-aged men have. As inconvenient as
it may be, it's the sort of boy who glories in male pursuits, who scores high in
male outlook on psychological tests, and who obsesses about having sex with girls who possesses abundant mana. That is the sort of boy that mana harvesters are
looking for."

Elisa nodded, resigned. "There's
something else I'd like to know. How -- how does the -- the siphoning
process work? Will he have to be taken to a…a wizard's workshop? Or
is it called a laboratory?"

The other woman smiled. "It's
something that actually can be done at home. If we have some hair,
blood, or nails, the required mystic link can be established
remotely, like with voodoo dolls in the movies."

"It's
that simple?"

"More or less."

"Will
there be any pain?"

"None at all. The boy falls into
a deep slumber. When his mana has reached a critically low level, he
will default into a basic female physiognomy. Before he wakes up, the
managing wizards will send a bit of magic back up the pipeline, and
this will refine his physical body and shape in the way that you have
requested."

"I feel like I'm hiring an
assassin."

Courtindale touched Elisa's arm, like a
friend. The realtor didn't didn't jerk away in startlement. The
witch-woman had, in fact, become her only confident in helping her to
explore the feelings that were so raw within her. "There will
be no pressure to coerce you. Just remember that your decision, pro
or con, will be the most important one that you will ever make, both
for Langdon and for yourself."

Elisa glanced away
perplexedly.

"I respect you for having doubts,"
Courtindale went on. "Too many guardians that I've met have been
so greedy or so indifferent to welfare of their young charge that my
firm has recommended to our clients that any negotiations with them
should be broken off. How the stepmother treated Cinderella was
absolutely disgraceful."

Elisa looked up. "But
Cinderella was always a girl. She didn't have any mana."

Jethra
shook her head. "If there was a historical model for Cinderella,
the memory spell involved would have made everyone except Cinderella
and her stepmother forget her years of boyhood. How could folklorists
know how she started out? Once she had her prince, Cinderella
wouldn't have told anyone anything. And her stepmother wouldn't
either, since she had been involved in something that would have
gotten her burned at the stake."

Elisa raised her chin.
"Is that the best that can be said about me? That I might not be
as bad as Cinderella's stepmom?"

Jethra Courtindale
smiled. "The People do not look at muggles as either saints or
sinners; we do not call them names for the things we persuade them to
do. The only one offenses that we cannot abide is a purposeful
violation of our contracts or our ethics."

"And the
victim has no role in establishing what ethics he should be subject
to?"

"To us, this is essentially a legal issue, Mrs.
Ardens, not a moral one. The law, wherever you go, is always
cold-blooded. It is the muggles, not the People, who make the laws
that all are expected to live by. The laws that the People make are
only for the People. We wouldn't presume to tell those outside our
own group how to live."

"I never wanted things to
come to this," Elisa said suddenly. "I wanted a son who
would love me as much as I tried hard to loved him. I wanted a real
family life more than anything."

Langdon's legal problems
had made him even more sour and grumpy than usual. He rarely talked
about his concerns and would simply walk away whenever his stepmother
brought up such things. He seemed to be in denial. She had wanted to
hear some hint of remorse from him, some reason to hope that these
bitter experiences he was undergoing would help to turn him into a
responsible young person.

Having no reason to think that such
a wish would come true, Elisa continued meet with the lawyer. By now
they were on a first-name basis.

"We always want a boy to
think that that his girlhood will only be a temporary condition,"
Jethra told Elisa. "That will avoid any excessive reaction in
the early weeks when he's still in shock. If he thinks he can soon
change back, he'll want to avoid panic and hold things together. Very
few want others to know what happened to him."

"What
do most boys do when it happens?" Mrs. Ardens asked.

"Remember
the story of Pandora? All the ills of mankind escaped from her box,
but because the box also held Hope, mankind retained the moral
courage to struggle on. A boy behaved better if we help to keep his
hope in place.”

"But isn't that a lie? There
isn't any hope, is there?”

"No, but by the time he admits that fact that he'll be female for as long as he lives, he will have been living as a girl for a long while. Total-immersion into girlhood has a way of getting under the
skin of former boys. Don't feel sorry for them. Once they adjust, they have every
possibility of becoming happy.”

“You said there was a way to keep Langdon
from blaming me?"

Jethra nodded. "A boy behaves best
if he thinks that what has happened has been caused by his own mistake. On
the other hand, if he is able to blame someone else, he'll hate that
person with a passion and things may get violent."

"But
how can he be convinced that he's done anything magical to
himself?"

"We've worked out excellent procedures
over the years. First we have to put Langdon into a state of mind
where he thinks that sex-change fantasies are extremely erotic and
very enjoyable. We want him to start daydreaming regularly about
what it would be like to suddenly restart life as a pretty
girl."

Elisa grimaced dubiously. "He's hidden a lot
of porn in his room, but I don't think that he'd ever find sex-change
the least bit erotic."

"We can help him to think
otherwise."

"Magic?"

"No. Mind or
attitude control by sorcery is not ethical."

Elisa's
curiosity was piqued, but the lawyer was not about to tell her more
that day. But Courtindale had told her the date and hour for the
contract signing.

It was only a couple days away.

Chapter 5

Despite misgivings, Elisa agreed to
the appointment and, two days later, the attorney was placing a sheaf
of printed sheets on Elisa's office desk.

One Mr. Crowlers,
as a representative of the Starry Order, sat in one of the visitors'
chair. Unlike Jethra, he displayed no Olympian beauty and was
remarkably nondescript. Elisa began to wonder where these people came
from, and whether they were truly human. She wanted to ask questions
about the People, but Courtindale had advised her that such inquery
would be futile. The People were very secretive.

Cowlers had
just read several important paragraphs of the contract out loud. "Do
you fully understand all the terms and ancillaries?" the man
asked.

"Miss Courtindale and I have gone over each line
exhaustively," Elisa replied. "I still can't understand how
magic works, but I believe that it does work."

"Good,
very good," said Mr. Crowlers. He made a few more inquiries,
making sure that she did indeed understand all that she had agreed
to. He seemed satisfied with her answers.

Courtindale then
read the escape clause and then fully explained it. "Refusing to
give the final permission for the siphoning procedure will terminate
the agreement," she said. "If that should occur, no
indemnity shall be exacted from either party."

"Yes,"
said Elisa. "It seems very generous."

"Not at
all. It is a standard clause," said Crowlers with the tiniest of
smiles. "How can one possibly enjoy a new life if he has the
slightest doubt regarding the ethics or the rightness of the contract
he has agreed to?"

Elisa didn't venture any
answer.

"Shall we begin the signing?" suggested
Courtindale. Crowley agreed; Elisa added her nod. "Send for your
witness," the lawyer advised. Elisa according summoned Polly in
as asked that she act as a witness for routine real estate
contract.

With the secretary looking on, one paper after
another was placed in front of Mr Crowlers, who signed it and passed
it on to Elisa Adrens. After Elisa, Courtindale witnessed for
Crawlers, and Polly witnessed for Elisa, though the former didn't
bother to read enough to know what the contract was all about. She
could do her job, but had never been interested in real estate beyond
her narrow duties.

When the last sheet was witnessed, Elisa
sent her secretary back to the reception room.

A moment later,
having gathered up his copies, the wizard expressed his courtesies
and took his leave with his copy of the documents. Elisa put her
contract pages into order and placed them into the office safe. It
occurred to her, belatedly, that nothing would be safe from these
people; they could do any sort of skullduggery that they wanted to.
Robbing a safe would be child's play.

She wondered whether their
attitude toward her would change, now that they had the signature
that they had wanted. When she glanced over her shoulder, Jethra
Courtindale was still standing by the desk expectantly. Elisa
regarded the woman thoughtfully. They had had no specific discussion
about what was supposed to happen after the signing.

"No
doubt you're feeling very tense right now," Courtindale
observed. "What say we take some lunch?"

Elisa rose
and looked at the clock. "Is this the last time that we'll be
meeting?"

"By no means. You will need a liaisons
with the Starry Order, even after the siphoning. It's very hard to be
the parent of a daughter who's undergone what Langdon will undergo.
Let's get something to eat. It will be a good time for you ask any
questions that may not have occurred to you before."

"Yes…I
suppose," said Elisa. What other person would she want to spend
time with? How could she talk to anyone else about the secrets that
were burning in her breast?

Now that she had done it, what had
she done, really? Was she dealing with evil people? Was this going to
end badly?

How could it possibly end well?

* * * *

As they rode in the cab, the realtor
began to think that she deserved to be punished. Nothing in her life
had been so reprehensible before this. If an executioner suddenly
appeared in front of her, she wasn't sure that she would even try to
run away.

"Now that things are settled," the lawyer
said, "we will want to move swiftly at getting Langdon ready. We
don't want to do the siphoning until he is psychologically prepared,
and that will take some weeks."

"I suppose,"
Elisa murmured absently. It was like she had become a stranger to
herself.

The other woman smiled sympathetically.

"By
now ten million tax-free dollars have been deposited electronically
in your new account in Zurich. Agents will be drawing modest amounts
from it in the name of Daphne Harrison, to acquire a European home
for you and to make investments in your new name. They shall be
establishing a complete new life history for you, one that will stand
up to scrutiny.

"You will receive the needed
documentation just as soon as the final consent form is filed
regarding Langdon's siphoning. In the meantime, you will need to
consider on an ongoing basis if the cancellation clause is something
you should invoke.”

"You say that almost as if you
would advise me to invoke it."

"I don't intend to. But I want you
to understand that there will not be any reprisal for disappointing
the Starry Order. It is against the law of sorcery to gain or
preserve a contract through intimidation. Also, not doing so is the
right thing to do."

"The lawyers I've known only talk
about winning, not doing the right thing."

"Yes, I know what the world is like,
and I find it sad, too,” replied the witch. Then she changed the subject.
"When you wish to exit this identity of Elisa Ardens and become
Miss Harrison, an impostor will fill the role of Elisa until your
return, while trying scrupulously to avoid creating new problems in your life. Most
clients want to return to their old haunts now and then. For example,
you may wish to come back to see Langdon's high school
graduation."

Elisa murmured agreement, while her mind raced ahead.

As Daphne,
Elisa would possess the necessary family and educational records. She would, of course, have no need for any employment
history because she would be the last heiress of a family of wealth
that was dignified by its connections to several houses of Central
European nobility. Now that the Iron Curtain had become a thing of the
past, these families were in flux, over the last decade and a half many of
them had drifted back to their ancestral land, out of Western exile. It would be possible to find herself a place amongst an
aristocracy rebuilding itself from the ground up. Jethra Courtindale had assured her that if the false Anastasia had had documents such as the People could provide, she would have lived and died a royal princess.

This
idea suited Elisa because she was herself mainly Hungarian and had read a
good deal about the ancestral country. Apparently, a
Daphne imposter would be engaged by the Order in order to put the new
heiress on a rock-solid social and economic footing. Before long, she
would be well known to the European cocktail set, to the exacting mavens of
fashion, as well as to bankers of Zurich and other useful people. Elisa would be able to step into a life that would already be an on-going thing. Then her mood sank.

Fine
promises. But Elisa had no leverage to make the People keep their
word. What could a contract mean to persons who played with
reality as if it were a computer game? Scraps of paper. How they
deigned to treat her in the future would depend entirely on the ethics to
which they claimed to be so dedicated.

"Rest; try to regain your confidence. All is
as it should be. Occupy your mind with the task of making this as
easy as possible for Langdon. That reminds me. I want to visit your
home when he's at school."

"Why'?"

"The
way into a boy's mind is through his music."

* * * *Elisa didn't expect Langdon home for hours, so she brought Jethra
into her condo right after lunch. Langdon's room was a mess, of
course.

"What a depressing place," remarked the
visitor, "but I've seen worse. By the way, we have a subliminal
CD that will inspire a young person to enjoy living in orderly
surroundings."

"Is it like sleep teaching?"

"Yes,
very much like that. In the business of the People, where magic is
unethical, science may serve. As we know, science has no ethics."
She shifted topics. "What are his favorite CD discs?"

"I'm not sure. The bands all have strange names, and all
their music is noisy and absolutely awful."

"You
sound like a parent," the lawyer commented lightly. "Another
of our CDs improves the listener's taste in music."

The
lawyer spotted the CD player and turned it on. The tray had a
five-disc capacity. Of the five discs inside, all but one was by "The
Gruesome Zombies."

"He seems to like this band. I'll
drop off duplicates of these same CDs at your office tomorrow. You'll
have to switch them with these original ones," Jethra told her.

"They'll be subliminal?"

"Yes. Their
purpose would be to get him interested in listening to a different
band, the Graveyard Dead."

"Why?"

"When
a boy is into this kind of rock, we use Graveyard Dead CDs that have
been prepared in advance. We could have used any similar band, but
the tech people for settled for the Graveyard Dead. Whenever Langdon
brings home a new Graveyard Dead concert, you let us know which one
it is and we'll switch it with a duplicate that carries the messages
we want."

"Bring one that makes him like 'oldies but
goodies.'"

"Or one that that makes him want
to listen to the tunes that teenage girls like?"

Elisa sighed. "Considering the
racket that both boys and girls like, I'm not so sure."

Jethra
smiled. "Just one thing more. I need to place a listening device
in this bedroom. It will help us choose the exact right moment to
start the extraction process."

Mrs. Ardnes shrugged. What
else could she do, now that she was into this thing with both feet?
Every strange request that was now made of her has started to seem so
dismayingly logical.

* * * *

The next day arrived, and so,
again, did Miss Courtindale.

She had brought several Gruesome
Zombies discs to the real estate office, repeating her previous
instructions to switch them with Langdon's originals.

"If,
by the end of a week, he's is showing any enthusiasm for the
Graveyard Dead, it will be a sign that he has good receptivity to our
variety of subliminal conditioning."

"What message
will they carry?"

"A message about woman-envy. That is basic. The aim is to induce Langdon to develop a rich and
luxurious fantasy life about changing into a sexy girl. What is erotic
always holds a powerful allure for a teenaged boy."

Elisa thought it dubious. Langdon seemed totally the wrong type for enjoying
that kind of fantasy.

"Will he start behaving
differently?" she asked.

"Very unlikely. A male's
sexual daydreams are a private pleasure, like smoking. In their
everyday life, males are really quite detached from their fantasy
life. It's a kind of compartmentalization."

"It
sounds like this process will take a long time."

"Not
as long as you think. Anyway, the longest journey begins with the
first step. I'll try to explain the psychology behind it all before I
leave."

* * * *

It was that very weekend when
Langdon came home carrying a package from the music store. His
stepmother pretended not to be at all interested in his musical
tastes, but checked out the bag while he was in the
shower.

Bingo!

Langdon had bought back three Graveyard
Dead albums. As instructed, she called Jethra Courtindale to let her
know which titles they were.

The next morning, Courtindale
stopped in at the office, rested her attaché case on the desk, and
drew out a trio of discs. Their labels said "Graveyard
Dead."

"Does it begin, really begin tonight?"

"Yes,
providing the young man listens to them. One message that they all
will carry is to listen to them repeatedly, and to get even more
titles by the same band."

"Well, he always plays
something. The walls never stop shaking with the cacophony."

"Good.
Just let me know what new titles he buys and we'll exchange them as
quickly as possible."

"But how will we know whether
the CDs are having any effect?"

"Some of them are
intended to give him an interest in things available on the Internet.
His computer has been hacked by our techs and infected with tracker
ware that will allow us to monitor his Internet habits. One thing
we'll be doing is sending him pop-ups with our ads to special tg
websites."

"Tgee?"

"Transgender. One
CD will inspire him to look for tg stories and videos. Once we know
where he's browsing, we'll be feeding him a subliminal messages to keep him thinking about sex-change and woman-envy as much as
possible, even when he doesn't have the doctored CDs blaring into his
ears."

"And all this is supposed to make him want to
be a girl?"

"Only on a fantasy level. That's all
that's necessary. Male fantasies of this kind are very common, but
very few men really want to be girls. It doesn't matter. An intense
and pleasurable daydream is the same as a meditative visualization."

"Like in yoga?"

"Close to that. Our
magic needs the subject's voluntary consent for it to work. Many computer viruses requires the
operator to click a software button of consent before the virus can
infect the system. Basically, it tells the computer to let its
defenses go down. We do the same thing. If Langdon is frequently visualizing turning into a
pretty girl, thinking about the stories and videos on the net that use,
say, magical or science fiction means to attain it, it constitutes a sort of mystical consent which
will let the magic produce those very changes on his body.”

“I thought that our contract gave you
consent,” said Elisa.

"You gave us the right to take the
mana. But Langdon has to give us at least implicit consent if we are to go beyond that, such as making him physically attractive and giving him a
female-structured brain.”

"Between the internet and the
CDs, it sounds like he's getting battered from all sides."

"The
real subliminal battering will start once he's become a
girl. Once that happens, we have to keep his mind off his moping. We'll
do all we can to start him thinking about happy things, boys and clothes, for instance."

"Won't all these sexual fantasies turn him gay even
before he's a girl?"

"He's not naturally gay and
this sort of psychological conditioning won't make him gay. It will all be just an enjoyable fantasy for him. It will be different when he's a girl and has a brain that has been restructured for girlhood. Then
we'll try to remove all the barriers that are hold him back from
yielding to his feminine instincts. The roots of
sexual preference lies in the brain structure.”

"If you say so."

"Another
thing. We'll want to make him curious about magic. He was a Harry
Potter fan, wasn't he? He shouldn't have any strong prejudices against non-scientific ideas that he's
presented with. Once we think that he's thinking along the right lines, it will be time to send him a small package in the mail."

"What'll
be in it?"

"That would take a while to explain.
We'll save the details for our next meeting. Right now, I need to get
some hair and, if possible, blood and nail clippings. His brush
should provide ample hair."

"Nail clippings are all over
his carpet," Elisa said. "Also, Langdon was in a brawl this week and came back
with a handkerchief all red from his nosebleed. It's not laundered
yet. Will that work?”

"Excellent!"

Chapter 6

If Elisa had been expecting to see
a change in Langdon over the next week, it didn't happen. There was
nothing feminine about his swagger or his rough way of talking.
Nonetheless, Jethra Courtindale phoned in with positive news.

"Langdon's progress is excellent. Every day he's making
more and more use of the tg resources on the net. He had a Western
novel on his screen only last night."

"A Western
novel? I don't understand."

"It's a Western
parody, about a gang of outlaws that get changed into beautiful women
by a magic potion and are put to work in a saloon."

"The
court hearing is Monday. I just wish I could be sure that it will go our way. I'd like to believe that he's innocent, but I really
don't."

"We all wish our loved ones well. But the
more legal pressure that's put on Langdon, the more susceptible he'll
be to using magic to get himself out of trouble."

"Can
magic get him out of trouble?"

"It can, especially if it makes
him over into a school girl. No one who sees him in that shape will
remember that Langdon Ardens ever existed."

Elisa was
impressed. "By the way, do the stars say that your plan will
succeed?"

"The portents appear good, but free will is
stronger than destiny. That is one reason that the People respect it
so much."

"Oh, one more thing," said Elisa, "I
wanted to let you know that Langdon bought three more Graveyard Dead
CD's this week." She read the titles off her note pad.

"What
about people who don't see the girl and still remember Langdon?"

"You should throw a party and
invite as many of the important people who know Langdon as possible. Make sure they all see Langdon.
And then take him around to see personally people any significant people whom you can't invite.
Most persons in authority don't care about individuals; to them they only exist as text in a data bank, and
those texts will be changed. Trust me, it works. By the by, do you have a
name that you'd like to give your stepdaughter?"

"No.
It's always seemed so unreal up to now."

"What's
Langdon's middle name?"

"Frederick."

"How
do you feel about Fredrica?"

Elisa shook her head.
"People would call her Fred."

"Langdon?
Lana?"

"I'm not sure.'

"Donna?"

"Donna?"
The realtor considered the name. "That's better. When he was
small, we used to call him Donny."

"Well, let me
know once you decide."

"Okay."

Mrs.
Ardens placed phone on the hook and pondered the name. Donna? Pretty.
Very pretty. She wondered how Langdon would like it.

* * *
*

Langdon case was heard by a grand jury in Iowa, he was
indicted as an adult. His trial was set for
December 27. The boy's best chance for avoiding lockup would be
plea-bargaining for a suspended sentence, maybe with community
service. Owlsley would press for that, along with making a big issue
about his relative youth, and the fact that at home he was still a
minor. It was unusual for a man on bail to be allowed out of the
state, even to await trial at home, but Owlsley sounded confident that he'd be able to get a
favorable ruling once bail was made.

Elisa had little money saved or invested, so she raised the
bond through a bondsman. It was strange
to think that before the trial date Langdon would likely be living
his life as Donna. Jethra had told her that the whole case against
Langdon would be wiped out by the Starry
Order, and that the scheduled trial would vanish from the court
calendar, probably even before a judge was assigned. They would also
see to it that the bail payment would appear as tendered in the imprisonment of a non-extant defendant and be earmarked for return to the
Ardens.

After making the bond, Mrs. Ardens returned home.
Langdon would probably come back to Omaha with Owlsley the next day.
Since this strange situation had begun, she hadn't been able to resist searching
Langdon's room for girly things, and she did so again tonight. As
usual, nothing was to be found, except a few videos such as It's a
Boy-Girl Thing and Identity Theft, as well as some sf books,
including Identity Matrix and I Will Fear No Evil. All of these works
of popular culture featured male to female sex changes. But,
personality-wise, her stepson had seemed so utterly unchanged that she decided
that psychological science was beyond her understanding.

The three
days Jethra Courtindale phoned and asked, "Elisa, how was
Langdon after he got home?"

"He didn't say much. He
was sullen when he off went to school in the morning, but he was
grinning when he came back, and his step seemed
lighter."

"Excellent."

"What
happened?"

"We gotten him hooked up with a new
girlfriend at school. Her name is Glory."

"Why do
that?"

"She's one of our people. She started coming
on to him before his appearance at the grand jury. Now, after all
that stress, he'll be eager to unwind with her. She called to tell us
that they're be getting together tonight."

"So
that's where he went."

"Very likely."

"Is
she a girl if his own age?"

"She'll looks his own
age and acts like it, but Glory is actually be older and more
sophisticated than she appears. She's helped many boys like Langdon
before. Her real work will begin after he's a girl."

"What
is she going to do?"

"When Langdon returns to school
as Donna, Glory will have already established a bond of trust with
him -- her. He'll be looking for someone to support him, someone he feels comfortable with from his old
life. Glory won't let on that she remembers his real past, but she'll
act like Donna's BFF, the perfect a shoulder for her to lean on, and
sometimes to cry on. When Donna needs to know something -- like how
to dress, how to walk, how to speak, how to be popular -- Glory'll lend
a hand. She'll also encourage Donna to start dating boys. She'll also
be Donna's on-site fairy godmother -- or sister -- but she won't say anything about that, either."

"Aren't your People putting a lot of
resources into this?"

"Not at all. It's service for
value. And, anyway, it's not our policy to foul our nest and move
West. We want to operate profitably in Nebraska for many years to
come. The Starry Order puts its post-signing customer service very
seriously. Compared to the value of mana, all this will cost the
Starry Order what amounts to mere pennies."

"I see,
you don't just make girls; you try to make happy girls,
right?"

"Yes. That's what I've always said."

"This
Glory, she's a good girl, isn't she?"

"As good as
she needs to be," the lawyer replied. "She has to appeal to
Langdon, and if you'll be honest with yourself, you'll know that his
tastes run more to beach bunnies than to choir girls."

Elisa
sighed. It was all too true.

After hanging up, the realtor
wondered whether saving Langdon's mental health wouldn't depend more
on the Starry Order than on her.

It shouldn't have to be that
way.

* * * *

That evening Jethra Courtindale called to
make a Friday morning appointment. Elisa met her at nine.

Jethra
came in looking pleased and excited. "Lately Langdon has been
downloading Lalola. Now that he's found out about the series, he'll
have to watch our site, since we have the only version on the net
with English subtitles. The video that we stream is heavily underlain
with subliminal suggestions. There are over a hundred and fifty forty-three
minute episodes, so that will amount to a lot of attitude-modification time."

"What is it? About a boy who
changes into a girl?"

"It's about a young businessman who
becomes a woman by the curse. He goes back to get his old job back, pretending to
be his own smart-as-a-whip cousin. The story is told in almost
day-by-day detail and, in the end, he – she – does everything she
can to keep the spell from breaking so she can marry the man she's fallen in love with.”

"I guess Langdon is starting to obsess about
this stuff," Elisa observed.

"Yes, and things are
going swimmingly with Glory, too."

"You're sure she
can help him?"

"Most of her former protégés are
already married. Some are still single but successful. I just saw one
of them looking incredible on the cover of a motorcycle
magazine."

"Langdon's difficult and coarse, not at
all the blooming bride type."

Courtindale smiled. "Did
you see Three Faces of Eve? In each human being there exists not just
three, but hundreds of different personalities. All we have to do is to
guide Donna's experiences along so that the personality of a congenial
young lady will emerge naturally."

Mrs. Ardens shook her
head. "You'd know more about these things than I ever
will."

"It's now time for the end game -- the end
game of Phase One, I mean. This afternoon UPS will deliver to Langdon
that small box I told you about."

"I haven't been
clear about how it's supposed to work."

The lawyer didn't
lose her enthusiasm. "Our subliminal messages have already put
it into the boy's mind that magic is something worth trying. I'm sure
it will work, because he was already a fan of Harry Potter and
similar movies. He doesn't have to believe in sorcery honestly, but in
his desperate state of mind we're sure that he'll be willing to give
it a try."

"Give what a try, exactly?"

"The
package will contain a flashy-looking medallion and a note. The text will
say that the anonymous sender is a Wiccan master who believes that
Langdon is being railroaded into prison by a corrupt legal system. He will be urged to wear the medallion charm
while he meditates upon summoning the Protective Forces by
reciting the chant that the note provides.

"The
chant is supposed to channel the Force through him while he
visualizes that insurmountable obstacles will magically arise that will prevent
his trial from ever taking place. He'll be encouraged to think that
the magic will work swiftly and that events should start to break
his way after about a week. However, long before he has time enough
to get discouraged, we'll have taken his mana."

"Is
there any real magic in the charm?"

"None at
all."

"Then what does it accomplish?"

"He's
likely to visualize something vengeful, like all the witnesses dying
in great pain. But, instead, when he'll wake up as a girl, he'll guess
that the magic went askew. If he's sensible, he'll blame his
own recklessness for playing with magic, and you'll be off the
hook."

Elisa frowned. "Langdon is seldom sensible.
His first instinct is always to blame someone else."

"If
he doesn't come up that reasonable explanation, the expert he talks
to will suggest it to him. To her, I mean."

"What
expert?"

Jethra opened her attaché case and took out a
sheet of notepaper. "When Langdon finds out that he's a girl, he'll
want to rush to the hospital. Take him instead to this clinic. The
doctor who sees him there is one of ours."

"What
will he do?"

"He'll say that he believes everything
that Donna is telling him is true and that his diagnoses is that magic is at
work. He'll explain that most doctors know about sorcery, but they've
always had to deny it because government policy forces them
to cover it up. Then he'll send you and Langdon -- Donna -- to an
expert mystic, one who, he'll claim, has already helped patients get rid of curses.

"The spell-breaker will inform Donna
that she has unintentionally cast a spell on herself. He'll
explain that because she was inexperienced, her unconscious thoughts
got into the way, that these thoughts perverted the magic. It stopped the trial, but in a way to make her powerful sexual
fantasies come true."

"Then what?"

"The
expert will assure Donna that he has seen many of these accidental
spells. He'll say that it can be broken, but that doing so always
takes a little time. Donna will be told that she has to meditate on
removing the curse frequently. She'll be told that she has to
focus on the idea that she wants, more than anything, to be a boy and only a boy.

"She'll be expected to keep it up for a year, until the
night comes when stars are back in the same position as they were at
the time of the actual change. This is usually a short enough length time to
keep a boy from despairing or panicking. But she'll be warned that
returning to boyhood depends entirely on her. If she has any
lingering doubt about wanting to give up her girlhood, then the magic
might not work."

"Well, it won't work. What happens
when the year is up?"

"With most boys, just like in Lalola, a year is enough for them to realize that they like their new
lives. All this time, Glory will have been trying to get her to enjoy being a girl, and if
she's been successful, Donna won't be all that much surprised when the
bogus spell fails. Donna might actually feel secretly happy, especially if
she's taken up with a boy by then.

"But if, as in rare
cases, her reaction is excessively negative -- angry, or violent-- we
have a Plan Two. But there's no reason to get so far ahead of
ourselves."

A few minutes later, Courtindale had gone
and Elisa sat alone in her office, trying to collect her thoughts.
"How on earth did I get into a world where things like this can
happen?" she asked herself, and not for the first time.

And she still had no answers.

Chapter 7

The all-important package came the
next day and Langdon had taken it away, not telling his stepmother
anything about what he had found inside. She had been advised by
Courtindale to stand back and let things happen as they happen. The
listening device that the lawyer had hidden near Langdon's bed would
inform the Starry Order's listeners whether or not Langdon had
started chanting.

Elisa hadn't been at the office long before
a call from Jethra Courtindale came in.

"I need to see
you," said Jethra. "Do you have time this morning?"

"My
calendar is open at eleven."

"Fine." She hung
up.

Elisa sighed. Was this terrible process just going to keep going
on and on?

At eleven sharp, Polly let her boss know that Miss
Courtindale was back.

Elisa motioned to the chair as Jethra
entered her office.

The latter began without preamble. "Last
night Langdon meditated until he fell asleep. The odds are that he'll
do so again, every night for at least a week." The lawyer
selected a paper from her case and put it in front of Elisa.

"We
won't have to wait a week. He's psychologically ready. When he
changes, he'll think that it was the chant and the medallion that did it.
This is the final consent form in front of you. It authorizes the transfer of mana
from a minor, of whom you are the legal guardian, to the Starry Order, in
return for consideration, as per our established agreement."

"This
is the time that I'd have to either use the opt-out clause or forget
about it, right?" the realtor asked.

"Yes,"
Courtindale affirmed.

"What should I do?"

"Physically,
or morally?"

"Morally of course."

"You
should always try to do what your heart tells you is right."

"What
is right?"

"A person won't go far wrong if he is faithful
to those whom he loves. You won't want to go on from here unless you
can go forward with a clear conscience."

"I don't know if
there is anyone left that I love. I'm pretty sure that there's no one
who loves me."

The lawyer's expression was as patient and
sympathetic as she could professionally allow herself to become.

Elisa
Ardens looked away. Of course she was unhappy. Her unhappiness had
dictated every step of what she had done so far. She had filled her
contract with every unfulfilled wish of an
aching and overburdened heart, and she had bestowed it not only upon herself,
but also on Langdon. But ultimately she couldn't deceive herself to think that she
was selling out Langdon for her own happiness, not for his. But did
youth, beauty, heath, wealth, travel, and palatial homes add up to
happiness?

No, not happiness. She couldn't expect that. The
Blue Bird of Happiness was never to be found hidden in a mountain
legalistic detail, or in a vault filled with cold treasure. Far from
expecting happiness, she would be grateful if she found that she was
stepping into something just a less awful than Hell.

Elisa
looked down at the paper. Her son didn't love her. She also worried
that she had stopped loving him.

Why was she so unlovable?
What was it about Langdon that made him so loveable?

He wasn't
the worst criminal in the world, she knew, but he could become worse.
Still, many women had loved a bandit. Many had even loved hot-blooded
murderers. But what no one could love was a person who had a piece of
ice for a heart.

She didn't know where to turn. Was creative
destruction the last best chance she had left?

Could a new daughter
make a beginning and a new family?

Could Langdon do better, be better, if put
on a new path, if not by his own decisions, then by hers?

She
didn't know. She didn't know anything.

Elisa couldn't see behind the door. So she just took a deep breath and decided that doing something was better than doingnothing, and would let the consequences take care of themselves.

After signing the paper, she dropped the pen as
if it had been the dagger of an assassin.

* * * *

Langdon
was so seldom home at dinnertime that Elisa had long since stopped
cooking meals for two. Tonight he came in about eight, smelling of
fast food and beer. As she watched the boy go to his room, she
regarded him from behind. He had grown almost fully into a big, sturdy man,
but would never be a handsome one. Was he ever sorry that he wasn't
attractive, just as she was sorry about her own plainness, or was
being someone who could frighten others enough for him?

Normally
the boy didn't come out of his room during the evening except to use
the bathroom. While she endured the long hours before bedtime, Elisa
wondered if she could carry out the detailed plan that Wizard's Law
Partners had recommended. Everything about her life, and Langdon's,
would be different, starting tomorrow. Intellectually, she was
accepting this future as true, but in her soul she couldn't accept
it.

Maybe it really was just a hoax? If so, it was a hoax so
elaborate that no simple Candid Camera type show could have inspired
Courtindale and whoever else was working with her. But if not that,
why would two strangers approach a nobody like her and make fantastic
promises that didn't hold an ounce of truth?

What had Courtindale and
Crowley gained so far from this farce? The chance to blackmail a
barely-solvent person like her? For what? For being gullible? For
letting herself be bribed into allowing them to go through the
motions of using magic that they didn't really have? To be exposed
publicly as having been so foolish would be embarrassing, she realized. Elisa would
be so ashamed of herself that she would have to restart her business
in some other part of the country, a place where no one knew her, but shame wasn't crime.

Anyway, she didn't have many friends or important contact to alienate if she were publically exposed as a fool. But how could this be a fraud? What about the
miracles that she had experienced?

Had they been done with
hypnotism, as she had conjectured before?

Elisa had not used
her opt-out clause. Now, whatever happened, events were completely out of her
hands.

That was assuming that anything could, or would,
happen.

Elisa rose and walked to the medicine cabinet, and
there took the strongest prescribed dose of Valium, hoping it would
subdue her anguish. She wanted to sleep tonight, and not be tossing
and turning, waiting for morning -- the terrible morning to
come.

After she had tidied up the kitchen in an almost
dreamlike state, Elisa retired to her own room. The first thing she did there
was to check the pack of photographs of herself in the guise of
Daphne, just to be sure that they were still there, they were still
real.

Daphne was so young, so beautiful, and so glamorous.
With all her heart she wanted to be Daphne.

"If this
could happen to me…." she said to herself, "…maybe
everything else they've talked about could happen, too."

That both gave her hope and additional dread.

Then Elisa Ardens dropped into bed, still mostly dressed.

Would she soon be
young again and very rich? Would Langdon become a high-school girl?
It was impossible to plan ahead, impossible to believe in it, as it was impossible that Santa Claus himself would bring presents. She couldn't wrap her mind
around any of it. If those promised things did happen, on an emotional level she'd be
very surprised. On the other hand, if tomorrow turned out to be just
like yesterday, she wouldn't be surprised at all. She would simply despise
herself even more than she ever had before.

Thanks to the Valium,
Elisa managed to drop off before twelve. Her doze seemed to be
dreamless.

The realtor was suddenly shocked awake, not knowing
what time it was. The house was echoing with shrill screaming.

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